


Gem of the Sea

by DepressingGreenie



Series: Tiny Reverse Bang 2020 [8]
Category: Avengers Assemble (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, First Meetings, Hulkbuster Armour, Hydra (Marvel), M/M, Mark 44, Meet-Cute, Merman Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:26:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25913578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DepressingGreenie/pseuds/DepressingGreenie
Summary: When Tony set out with the Avengers on that mission he didn't expect to meet a Merman.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Tiny Reverse Bang 2020 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1836148
Comments: 4
Kudos: 60
Collections: 2020 Cap/Iron Man Tiny Reverse Bang





	Gem of the Sea

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [I Belong with You (You Belong with Me) [!Art]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25252303) by [DarthBloodOrange (DepressingGreenie)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DepressingGreenie/pseuds/DarthBloodOrange). 



> **Code Name:** Armour ~ (Round 4)

“This is ridiculous. Not to mention completely disappointing.” Tony says, taking out another of the HYDRA goons standing in his path. “Where’s your leader, I’d like to lodge a formal complaint.”

“You tell ‘em, Iron Man. Put in mine too while you’re at it.” Clint laughs. “It’s the weekend, who attacks the city on a weekend? I was watching the game. I had made myself the perfect sandwich too, now it’s sitting there, alone, uneaten, getting all sad and gross”

“You’ll eat it anyway” Natasha scoffs.

“It’s the principle of the thing” Clint grumbles.

“All I’m saying is that HYDRA needs to work on keeping on brand. This monster is neither a hydra or tentacled. It’s disappointing. When you get the call that HYDRA is attaching Manhattan with a giant monster, you thing you’re either going to get a beast out of Greek mythology or some sort of giant squid. This is neither.” He says.

The creature was a monstrously giant crocodile, that looked like it was made out of thousands of huge boulders lumped together. It had glowing blue eyes that seemed to ooze smoke.

“Cut the chatter, boys, before we get told off by SHIELD’s watchdog.” Natasha says.

“Tell me you aren’t in the least bit disappointed, Widow.”

“Watch it, Stark” she scolds, but he can here the tell-tale smirk in her voice.

Tony has finally got a clear shot of the creature again. The repulsers seems to have little to no effect. So he tries the lasers. Then the rockets. Then the localised EMP grenade. A stun blast. Then a sonic blast. Next he tries a high frequency wavelength, to see if that had any effect. Then a low frequency then that didn’t work. Then he tried a fire blast.

He was quickly running out of tricks.

“Sir, I don’t believe your weapons are doing any damage to the creature. Might I suggest Mark 44?”

“Yeah, sounds good, J” Tony says. “Send it in”

“Very good, Sir”

The Hulkbuster armour flies in from the STARK satellite and assembles itself around his current armour. As soon as the armour was ready he throws himself back at the creature. Giving it everything he’s got.

But it quickly becomes clear that even the Hulkbuster’s weapons were as ineffective on the creature. Tony land’s on the beast’s stony back and tries to pry the rough platelets from it with his hands. “Guys, I think we many have a problem” Tony says, somewhat winded.

“Are you seriously trying to rip its scales off, Stark? Not even Hulk could do that” Clint says.

“Hulk tried!” Hulk says.

“We know.” Tony says. “I just thought that maybe the Mark 44 could do it thought.”

“Hulk strongest there is! Iron Man’s suit not stronger than Hulk!” Hulk roars.

“Okay, you’re right, Buddy. You’re the strongest.” Tony sighs.

“Debatable” Thor scoffs.

Tony rolls his eyes. “Look, we’re running out of ideas here. We need to find a way to defeat this monster” he says. “Widow, does SHIELD have any super-secret weapons I’m not meant to know about that could really help right now? Figured I’d ask”

“Unfortunately, no” she says. “It must have a weakness, though. Have you tried its throat? It’s underbelly?”

“Yes!” Tony responds, at the same time Clint says something about trying for the beast’s balls.

Something catches his attention out of the corner of his eye. “JARVIS, did you see that?”

“Yes, Sir” JARVIS says. “I am unable to identify it, but I have a visual lock”

JARVIS pulls up a camera zoom on the HUD. And Tony can’t believe what he is seeing. It almost looks like a… A mermaid, swinging off the lampposts, launching of the railings on the side of buildings, like some sort of procuring fish. And it was heading this way.

“It’s it HYDRA?” he asks.

“From what I can tell, HYDRA’s forces have been attaching it. I doubt the creature it one of them” JARVIS says.

The mermaid quickly reaches the creature. It swings itself up using a flagpole extending from a nearby building and lands on the creature’s shoulder. The mermaid, Tony can’t believe that there was a real mermaid right there in front of him, works its way up along the creature’s neck, up to the base of its head.

The Mermaid draws a long dagger from what appears to be a netted pouch around its hip, and plunges it into the beast’s neck. Whatever the dagger is made of seems to do the trick. One of the stone plates brake off, falling away to the ground. The merman drives the dagger into the creature’s now exposed flesh.

The beast rears up suddenly with an ear splitting screech of pain.

Tony loses his footing at the unexpected movement from the creature, but manages to get a handhold on one of its scales. This turns out to be a bad move as the creature, trying to unsuccessfully back away from the pain, trips over its own tail and goes crashing into the water.

He barrel rolls underwater, unable to tell which way up in the cloud of bubbles.

Taking a deep breath, Tony closes his eyes and tries to relax. Knowing he was safe in the armour, he wasn’t going to run out of air any time soon.

When he opens his eyes, what he sees shocks him. He sees the mermaid laying across the beat’s head, caressing its face. The mermaid makes a series of clicks and chirps that seem to sooth the creature, almost looking like it was apologising for the hurt it caused before.

Several questions come to mind all at once.

The creature turns with a gain swish of its tail and swims off into the ocean. But Tony pays it no mind…

…his eyes are locked onto the mer ** _man_** in front of him.

He was handsome.

The merman had beautiful golden hair that framed his head like halo of soft sunlight. He had string blue eyes that shone more beautifully than anything he’d ever laid eyes on before, even the most expense of gems he’d ever seen. And a smile warm and soft.

His chest looked like it was chiselled out of stone, then overlayed with a soft creamy skin that begged to be kissed and caressed.

And his tail…

Tony doubted there were any words in all the known languages to describe how beautiful it was. It glowed iridescent under the light, shifting colours from a silvery, light lilac to a deep, warm blue. Like the fringe of where the blue sky started shifting into Space. His transparent fins sparkled as they caught the light. Like stars in the night.

All the fairy-tails his mother had read to him when he was young, of pirates searching the ocean for treasure…. He was sure he had just frond it. This merman had to be that treasure. The gem on the sea.

The merman swims towards him with a bright smile. Somewhere in his mind he knows that maybe he should be afraid, maybe the smallest bit weary. He had just seen him take down a giant stone crocodile single-handedly when none of his own weapons had even done the smallest bit of damage. But he wasn’t. And maybe that in itself should have him worried.

He watches at the beautiful creature swims towards him. His gem of the sea. His treasure.

The merman stops in front of him, smiling softly, and lays his hands on the Hulkbuster’s cheeks. Tony wished he could feel the man’s hands on his own face. But he didn’t want to risk scaring the merman away.

Would it be worth it though? To feel that caress? Would the merman follow him to the surface?

 _‘Fortune favours the bold’_ they say, and Tony knows this to be true. He just hoped his fortune of the sea favoured him enough to follow him back up.

He decides to go for it. Tony takes a deep breath and starts his accent towards the surface.

And to his luck the creature follows, chasing him with a small frown.

When he reaches the surface, he climbs up on to a boat dock. The merman watches him from the surface, tilting his head slightly.

Tony couches down as best he could in the armour without damaging the dock, and offers his arm out for the merman.

Flashing him a bright smile the merman pulls himself Tony’s arm and onto his shoulder, not exactly what he was planning, but it would do just fine.

As he walks down the dock the merman caresses the armour, playing around with all the hatches and dips.

“There you are! We thought you were dead!” Clint shouts. “We would have had to word out how to split the Tower between ourselves and-…” the archer’s eyes go wide. “What is that? Is that a mermaid?” he asks.

“Yeah. He was the one who took down the creature.” Tony said.

“Really?” Clint says, eyeing up the merman.

“You should probably send him back, Tony” Natasha says.

“I don’t think he’d like that, really” Tony says.

“Why?” she asks.

“I don’t know… he kind of chose me.” He says. “And I don’t think he’s going to be letting go any time soon”

“Being a superhero is so weird” Sam says.

Tony laughs. He can’t help but agree. Being a superhero **_was_** weird, there was no question there. But Tony couldn’t find it in himself to complain. Not when it lead him to his gem of the sea.

**Author's Note:**

>  **I didn't find a way to write it into the fic (I felt Steve should be fairly non-verbal), but:** I figured if Thor and Asgard are real,... Steve can be from Atlantis (or someplace similar). The giant stone crocodile is meant to be one of the guardians of Atlantis (captured and controlled by HYDRA), and that is why Steve knew its weak spot (and why he was so gentle with it after). Steve used the guardian's weak spot to snap it from the mind control.
> 
>  **Edit:** Yes, I forgot that Atlantis is a thing in Avengers Assemble, somehow 🤦. Despite me having it in my notes NOT to call it Atlantis but "At'lya" if I mention it in the fic.  
> (Thank you, Indigomountain, for pointing that one out for me 😊. I'm just glad I put it in the notes and not the fic)
> 
>  **Me:** Call Steve's city "At'lya", there is already an Atlantis.  
>  **Also me:** Why should I call it "At'lya" when I can just call it Atlantis??? Thor is from Asgard, so why can't I have an Atlantis?   
> 🤦🤦🤦
> 
> ~✨~  
>   
> ⋆Other sites I'm on are linked in [my profile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DepressingGreenie/profile).  
> ⋆If you want to remix/create something inspired by my work feel free (so long as it isn't hateful and doesn't hurt anyone). Show me, I'd Love to see it 💖 Link to my work with AO3 'Inspired by function' if you post it to AO3.  
>   
> ~✨~


End file.
